I am so sorry. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

We use Teaching Textbooks. Ds loves it. I like that new concepts are well explained and older concepts are revisited frequently. I also like that it uses CD Roms and a workbook at the same time. I don't like that it's expensive, but for what ds has gotten out of it, it's worth it for us. We use Level 5 - which I feel starts out at a 3rd grade level and reaches the end of 5th grade by the last CD.

1. What's your name? Angela 2. How many kids do you have (include ages if you wish) 3. 16, 13, 9 3. What curriculum/curricula do you use? Ambleside Online 4. Something interesting about yourself I can say the alphabet backwards in 4 seconds flat. 5. What's your favorite season? Autumn 6. Favorite subject to teach: Math 7. What's your HS approach in a nutshell? Relaxed Charlotte Mason 8. Why did you decide to homeschool? Gifted 3rd-grade dd bored to tears, miserable, and hated learning in gifted school. 9. What country would you want to visit, or have you? Italy. Dh and I went to Venice, Florence, Siena, and Tuscany for our 10th anniversary (7 yrs ago). Best trip ever.

Facebook Mothering.com Ambleside Online Yahoo Group My blog Aim.com (mail) Youtube (to soak in more LaGuardia Arts HS talent) :D and the LaGuardia Arts HS website

I got 100 sheet pads of Canson newspaper print at Michael's for like $2 each. Ds goes in and out of cartooning phases.

My ds (newly 9) would have said the food, too. But...he is definitely noticing "prettiness" in girls now. Girls tend to like him and tell him so - usually they are the 10 and 11 years olds and ds has admitted to saying he's 10. He also gets all "cool" and flirty and shows off his manly athletic skills, lol. He does make a point to look good before he goes out (clothes, hair gel, even Axe cologne a few times :glare: ). I keep my eye on him. It's harmless and cute (now). He understands appropriate behavior and talk so I'm not worried. Of course dh loves that his son is such a "chick magnet" :glare: . I've asked him not to let ds hear him say that.

Totally normal. My dd was 4'9" when she was almost 12. Now she's 13 and 5'5". I'm pretty sure boys grow at an even faster rate. They're usually shorter than the girls up to high school and then somewhere at around 14-15 they shoot up like a weed. That's puberty for you. :D

I haven't read all the replies, but we find ways to do it. This is what I do in my neighborhood. The homeschool group trips and classes we participate in range from free to $10 per child (I have no interest in the $150 things). These are coordinated by parents. Dd is a competitive dancer and starting in September she can do a work study 4 hours a week and get free tuition (saving us over $200/month). Ds is in cub scouts (maybe like $40 for 5 months) and will do either basketball or football next - these are maybe $100 for the whole season (at least 4-6 months), uniforms included. I also work for a company that gives me (and 2 to 5 guests) a free corporate membership to just about every museum and cultural center in NYC. I also look in the local papers for free/cheap events around town. Home Depot has a free kids workshop every first Saturday of the month. An art museum near me does a free kids workshop every Sunday afternoon. A sculpture park 15 minutes away does free art classes every Saturday afternoon. Many museums and art galleries have free classes. There are festivals and celebrations at the parks (Native American Powwows, Chinese Dragon Boat racing, etc) that are free. Most of the parks have free tennis, track, and swimming lessons a few mornings a week throughout the summer. The local libraries have free weekly clubs for things like chess, knitting, comic book making, game days, creative writing, and storytimes. They also do a lot of shows and workshops over the summer that are also free. A local performing arts center has a kids summer stage program for kids up to 13 years old - both my younger kids did that last summer (it was every day for 2 weeks) and they loved it. There are Shakespeare in the park performances, concerts, fireworks shows, and stuff like that at the larger parks. A beach day with your friends or a day at the park is only the cost of a picnic lunch. So the cheap and free stuff is out there, you just have to look for them, organize something on your own, and gather up some friends to do them with. It's the only way I do things!

My pediatrician said girls will continue to grow for only a year-and-a-half more after starting their cycle. That seemed to be true for my 16y/o. My 13y/o who is already 5'5" is still growing (like a half inch every few months) and might still have another year to go. :001_huh:

I would suggest starting your dd in Year 1 instead of Year 2. I think she'd get a lot more out of it. Understand the readings are pretty advanced and the "Years" do not necessarily correspond to grade level. Many parents and kids get frustrated and give up simply because the Year they chose wasn't the right fit. We're doing Year 2 (secularly) now and it's perfect. Ds is very bright and these readings are challenging. He just turned 9 last month. JMHO. :) And don't forget to read as much as you can on the AO website. There's so much more to AO (and the whole Charlotte Mason method) than a booklist and weekly schedule. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Following Ambleside Online, we use a living books approach to geography and we're reading Tree in the Trail and Seabird this year. We also use maps when doing history and literature readings, locating all the places we read about. And we use a book called "The Complete Book of Maps & Geography (Grades 3-6)" that ds does once a week (a page or 2). Inexpensive and it works for us.

Ds (now 9) was 2 1/2. He was dry from the first night of potty training. I think it's because he went right to underwear only - even at night. A few years later he would occasionally wet the bed, maybe once a week or so, and that lasted until he was 7. If I got him up to pee before I went to bed (midnight-ish) and he'd be fine.

Congratulations!! You're gonna love it. :001_smile:

Ok, jumping in here with the way we learned it in girl scout camp: Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts Mutilated monkey meat Little bloody birdy feet French fried eyeballs rolling in a frying pan And I forgot my spoon So they gave me... Fresh fish, Spit on top Monkey vomit and camel snot Potato chips dipped in dooooo-dooooooooooo Eat it (insert person next to you's name), it's good for you! :tongue_smilie: :D

We live in NYC - in a residential borough (county) right next to Manhattan. It's perfect. I'm a city girl and could never live anywhere else.

:seeya:

This. :001_smile:

I'm more secular CM. My blog's in my sig.

My ds (newly 9) is a Bear Scout (cub). He started as a Tiger (1st grade). I have no idea where he wants to take this, but right now he's having fun. He's in an awesome Pack/Troop that is not only very active, but turns out a good number of Eagles.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help.htm http://www.funbrain.com/ http://www.homeschoolingadventures.com/ http://www.enchantedlearning.com/school/index.shtml

I know Times Tales has been mentioned on here before, but I have to jump in and RAVE about this odd little program. Ds (newly 9) went in knowing the 0s, 1s, 2s, 5s 10s, & 11s. Then he learned the rest in 2 sittings. It is now a couple of weeks later and he still knows them all by heart - and the corresponding division. This was just what he needed. I suggest giving that a shot.

:p It's out of the house. The sales office is 12 minutes away (by car). I was a SAHM for 12 years before deciding I'd like to get back into the game. The kids activities were getting expensive, lol. My manager felt I had a lot to offer - SAHMs being really organized, and all :tongue_smilie:. So for 4 hours I take incoming calls and set up services for customers. It involves 2 things I love - the computer and the phone. I find it a relaxing escape after a day at home. You get a base hourly wage and commision on top of that (you can pm me if you're curious about the salary). Oh, and they gave us a $270/mo cable & internet pkg for free (400 channels & 50mbps internet) plus a free corporate membership to almost every museum in NYC. It is more than worth the 20 hours. And I think almost every city has a cable office.

OMG. I thought I was the only one who knew about this. I was in NYC in 1976 with this. Where were you? (and we've never forgotten this. Isn't that interesting? Still shaking my head and rolling my eyes after 35 years).

I was one of the guinea pigs in this this ridiculous, horrible reading "experiment". Thankfully I was transferred out of this 1st grade class and placed in the top track where words were normal. I could already read and this made me cry every day. I mean, honestly, WTH? The Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) The Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) spelling system was designed by Sir James Pitman (grandson of the man who devised shorthand) to help young children learn to read more quickly. There are 44 characters in the Initial Teaching Alphabet... It uses the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet and another 14 characters to represent sounds such as "oo" and "th". Sentences written in ITA are all in lower case. ITA was introduced into selected schools in England in 1961. Both the children (and their parents!) had to master the use of the expanded alphabet in all of their schoolwork. Of course, ITA was only was only an interim solution to reading and writing and consequently, after the age of seven, the proper alphabet had to be learnt! Many 'learning to read' books were produced in ITA and a popular series was 'The Downing Readers".

I agree with amygabrielle. I prefer the subway over the bus (even when my 3 kids were small), but either are fine. NYC is only scary in the movies and on TV, but not IRL (well, not usually, lol). It is the safest and friendliest big city in the country (I swear - there was a study :D ). It's an amazing place with so much to see and do. Get a good guidebook. There are so many out there and just about all of them are great. I'll use one on occasion, myself! Decide where you'd like to go and make yourself an itinerary. Be flexible enough to allow for some spontaneity - the unexpected fun is always the best. I've live here all my life and would never even dream of living anywhere else. Victoria and Pam in MA had great ideas regarding hotels and parking.